Inspiration

If not, you’re missing out. Both of them are massively successful entrepreneurs.

And they didn’t wait until “the right time” to launch their dream.

Taylor Manning started her freelance business during college. When she graduated, she didn’t even bother to look for a job. She knew that she had found what she wanted to do with her life – so she did it. At 19 years old.

Taylor became so successful that she now coaches other entrepreneurs, and makes more in a month than some people do in a full year. She flew past six figures per year by the age of 21.

Caleb Maddix is a 14-year-old entrepreneur who lives by the mantra “The gun that kills the most people is ‘gonna’.” He has heard countless people put off their dreams, saying that they will pursue a business when they get out of college, when they get married, or when they have more time.

He’s decided not to be that person. He says he sat down one day and realized that if he wanted to start a business, he could do it now just as easily as later. He’s been on dozens of mission trips and has seen what abject poverty looks like. His dream is to provide jobs for others, donate enormous amounts of money, and make a difference in the world.

What’s Your Excuse?

Neither Taylor nor Caleb let excuses stop them. Taylor could have said, “Oh, but I’m busy in school, I’ll think about this later.” Caleb could have said, “Oh, I’m just a kid, I’ll figure something out when I grow up.”

No one would have blamed them. And probably, no one blames you for the excuse you’re using either.

But what if you stopped making excuses?

What if you stopped waiting for “the perfect time”? What if you realized that you could start your dream today, and not some unknown time in the future?

What’s possible if you simply take action now?

Time Will Pass Anyway

In ten years, you’ll be a decade older whether you move toward your dreams or not. And trust me, you’ll wish you started today.

There will always be challenges. If you use challenges as excuses today, you’ll still be doing it in ten years. The circumstances will be different, but there will always be a reason not to start.

Will you let that hold you back? Or will you choose to be like Taylor Manning and Caleb Maddix, and take action where you are with what you have?

If you’re ready to act, I’m here to help. My Ultimate Cash for College program will help you develop the entrepreneurial skills you need to make extra money in school and beyond. Whether you want to start your own business full-time or just bring in extra money on the side, you’ll discover the strategies that make freelancers and entrepreneurs successful.

To learn more about the Ultimate Cash for College workshop, Sign up for 25 ways to Fire Your Boss today. Your dreams are waiting – now is the time!

Being busy is no excuse to be broke! Everyone knows someone who is always busy but never has any money. Has anyone stopped to ask why?

Why are you broke all the time? It is easy to stay busy with tasks that never affect your bank account. I see this all the time as a Coach. People come in with a list a mile long of tasks that they are working on or have finished and they are so proud of everything on the list, but none of it makes money!

We are going to find 3 ways to know if you have busy but broke syndrome. Then we are going to look at 3 busy but broke breakthroughs.

How Do You Know if You have the “Busy but Broke” Syndrome?

1. Does your bank account reflect a balance on par with the hours you are working?

Since my business is a success-based business most of my clients are excellent planners. One trait planners have is that they try and anticipate and structure their entire business, often spending more time in planning than executing money-making activities.

Some of my clients rearrange and re-plan their schedule because they feel they will have control over all of the details if they are safely in a plan. But if you’ve ever worked with people or technology you know life isn’t like that – some things will just take longer.

If you plan 10 minutes to check your email, it never fails: that’s the day you received 100 new emails to which you need to respond. Now you spend the rest of the day in catch up mode with tasks of low priority so that you can feel like you are accomplishing your to-do list.

This structure looks very important to you, but really it is masking the real things that are stealing your productivity.

2. Do you find yourself searching for every guru’s top tips for productivity?

Every guru has a different but equally awesome way they got to the top – because it fit them. If you spend all of your time reading the latest tips from the latest guru and then re-planning your life around their ideas, you’ll be chasing your tail.

It’s fine to get new ideas, but if you never stick with it long enough to see if anything comes from it, you will simply be busy but broke!

3 Are you always stressed and behind, running from one task to the next without completing anything or making money?

This is also very common. Many people do not have a great way to separate priority in their business put everything in the same box marked “urgent”.

Sometimes this looks like procrastination. Chances are if there is something you are procrastinating you need to look at your mindset around the task, but that’s a topic for another day.

This can also look like Attention Deficit Disorder. If you have A.D.D. you understand the extra time it takes to process your life. Unfortunately, a lot of people claim to struggle with ADD but truthfully they are just poor time managers.

I followed one client through their morning and this is what it looked like for this work at home mom: Boot up computer, remember needing to unload the dishwasher. Unloaded top rack of dishwasher and remembered she needed to return a client email from the previous day. Opened email and noticed a refund not issued properly for a separate client, called to resolve bank issue. Remembered needed to post on social media account and picked up her phone. A friend called and she spoke with that friend for a while. While on the phone realized she needed a specific outfit for the next day and began a load of laundry, then proceeded to put laundry away. While putting laundry away she stepped on the infamous LEGO and set her little one to cleaning his room. While he was cleaning he decided he was hungry so Mom went down to make lunch where she had an email waiting for her from the client from the previous day.

Her morning was running from one crisis to another.

I had her sit down with a Post-It note and every time an item popped into her head she wrote it down. She came up with 32 other items she needed to complete right now. 32! And the one deadline she had that day that was non-negotiable wasn’t even on the list. At the end of her morning, she was busy but hadn’t gotten anything real done.

Now: 3 ways to break the cycle of Busy but Broke!

1. Like the stay-at-home mom I observed, I’d like you to go get a Post-It note pad. Go ahead and create two Post-It notes: one titled “Due Today” and one titled “Do When Time Allows.

As you go about your work, write down each distraction or the new idea on one of the two notes. Only allow tasks or expectations with looming deadlines to make it to the shortlist for today.

2. If you’re an expert on every guru’s advice ever written, pick one tip and implement only that one! Do it consistently for a period of time.

To know if something is productive you have to be able to isolate the data based on one change. That means you have to stick with it! I mean it too. It takes 21 days to make a habit and you should allow a reasonable amount of time to pass to know if the tip is working.

Hint: It might take longer than 21 days.

Do not change something that was working for you because you now want to achieve the same goal just like your new mentor did for their success. Your success is your journey, not theirs!

I see this all the time as well, clients who read a new book and feel they need to adjust their business plan to this style of leadership, business or success. All depending on the book’s focus, and they can lose hours or even days adjusting and editing what is already working. Take note if you see yourself doing this!

Often we fix what we feel is easy to adjust, like our schedules in order to avoid changing what is harder to change, like a habit, mindset, or limitation.

One of the ways I help clients overcome this exactly is through mastermind groups. Having someone else who sees your business activity and overcomes the areas in your blindspot. Read more about Masterminds here! Do not waste 5 years going in circles when you could be part of a group that builds you and keeps you accountable to your greatness!

3. This is the most brutal but the most effective tip, and the shortest. Do what makes you money first then fill in the rest of your schedule.

If you’re struggling with being busy but broke, you’re not alone! I see it all the time in my coaching practice. Fortunately, there are actionable ways to solve the problem.

Know yourself. If you like to follow everyone’s advice limit the amount of advice you are ingesting. Make sure you are being strategic that the advice you are following is aligned with where your business is headed and it makes you money. Do not take your advice from broke and busted individuals.

Seek out situations where you have authentic, transparent relationships with other business people who are committed to growing their business and making money. If you are leaving excuses and time wasters behind get involved with a mastermind group to amplify your growth.

We have Masterminds starting soon. Email info@plantosucceed.net for more information!

Don’t ever give up. Believe in yourself or no one else will. My personal saying is: ‘I’d rather die knowing that I tried to do what I love.’ Adrienne Bailon.

Speaking as a business owner for the last two years working with coaching clients one thing often overlooked is the buy in. Whether that’s to a skill or ability, relationship, task or business the percentage of your buy in will determine what you get back. Maybe you’re not used to hearing buy in , maybe you think of it as commitment, tenacity, or faithfulness. At the end of the day what you have bought into as valuable for your life takes time, energy, and resources from you. There’s a reason you’re here. There’s something you’re looking for that says this is the way. This is the path, you’re going to be alright. You are in charge of your buy in. No one else will ever buy in more than you do to your project, task, ability. I’m here to invite you into an opportunity to buy in to what you’re doing.

Picture with me for a moment the scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with the leap of faith or view the clip here. He is standing in the cleft of a rock, he knows where he needs to go and sees no way to get there. So he takes a moment, steadies himself and buys in to the mission. or take any Olympian for example, their life reflects their buy in to the dream. They make sacrifices and live how very few will ever choose to live, and have huge payoffs. What you are willing to do when no one is watching determines How well you do when everyone is watching. being 100% committed gives you the fuel to get back up when youve fallen for the 12th, 60th, or 1200th time and try again. There are lots of examples of the Edisons, Rowlings, Sanders, Sandburgs, maybe we are waiting on you.

If you want a partner for your success I am offering 45 minute sessions based on vision and mindset to give you the jump start you need at a drastically reduced rate of $50. You can find one here.

So start today, start somewhere, but go all in. Write the book, join a club, gain a skill, become a marine biologist, English teacher in the middle east, open that business. Don’t live life wondering if there’s something you are meant to be. Become who makes you proud. Bet on yourself, grow , change, improve. One day you will wake up a completely different person who has accomplished what today you could only dream.